Not only will they be able to see a four-time NHRA champion race in Canada for the first time in many years; they should consider themselves lucky they have a chance to just see him at all.

It’s been some kind of last five years for top fuel racer Larry Dixon.

In 2015, racing in Gainesville, Fla., Dixon was travelling 280 miles an hour when his dragster flew off the track, breaking in two and slamming into the way. The crowd was stunned by the crash. They were even more stunned when Dixon managed to get out of the car and walk away.

Dixon suffered two broken vertebrae.

A year earlier, in 2014, Dixon went to the doctor to get a persistent sore throat checked out. He was diagnosed with Stage 3 throat cancer. He went through 30 radiation treatments. About three months, later he was cancer-free.

Last year, Dixon sat out racing because he couldn’t get a sponsor.

“It was a difficult time,” Dixon said.

But it’s hard to keep a good man down and Dixon is definitely a good man on and off the track.

“I’ve driven a car for 20-plus years. About a year ago, I started buying equipment to be operational on our own, as opposed to driving for somebody,” Dixon said. “We went to our first race in Florida this year in March.

“It’s a slow process. I would probably sound like a broken record saying that finding the sponsorship dollars to go out and perform week in and week out is very challenging. We’re coming up there without a sponsor, but we’re going to make a few runs on Saturday and run Sunday as well and do the best we can to put on a show regardless if we have any names on the side of the car or not.”

“Up there” is Grand Bend Raceway where Dixon will run in the top-fuel category. It’s the first time he’s raced in Canada since he raced in Montreal decades ago.

“I’m really excited about it,” Dixon said. “I went to the event last year as a spectator and got a chance to meet Paul Spriet (Grand Bend chief operator.) They had a big crowd with the Nitro cars and such. We stayed in touch. I am really excited about coming up there and running the Nitro Top Fuel car.

“Years ago we used to run in Sanair in Montreal. Gosh, it was great. I know we stopped going up there because of the trouble with the leaded gas and it was a shame because I really enjoyed going up there. I think that the motorsport fan in Canada is probably second to none, just so wound up and it makes you feel wanted. I love going up to Canada and seeing that and putting a show on.”

Spriet said it’s really the first time Dixon will drive in Canada. He was in Sanair in 1991 as a crew member.

“But he was too young to drive,” Spriet said. “It’s going to be a good time.”

Sponsorship money always is hard to come by especially when someone is starting his own team.

“When we lost the sponsorship and had to park the team in 2015, it caught us off guard a little bit. I wasn’t prepared at that point. I drove a few events in 2016 just to get us to where we are going now,” Dixon said.

“It sucks. You have a billboard on the side of your car but you go over 300 miles per hour, but it’s really hard to see it. You’ve got to look fast. That’s the hard part about selling it. But I know it can be done. It’s just finding the right match, the right company.”

After Grand Bend this weekend, Dixon says he will race at meets in Michigan and Illinois.

Dixon believes forming his own team is the right direction. He recognizes that the older a driver becomes the fewer opportunities he gets to drive. He’s opted to look at the long term.

“For long-term sustainability that’s the direction you need to go,” Dixon said. “There aren’t a lot of hired 50-year-old drivers out there. That’s the progression; it’s time to graduate and time to move up. I’ve been in my sport my entire life because my dad started racing in the 60s and 70s. It’s just the next step in my journey in life.”